The Deliverer

Luke 8:26-39 Holman

26 Then they sailed to the region of the Gerasenes,[e] which is opposite Galilee. 27 When He got out on land, a demon-possessed man from the town met Him. For a long time he had worn no clothes and did not stay in a house but in the tombs. 
28 When he saw Jesus, he cried out, fell down before Him, and said in a loud voice, “What do You have to do with me,[f] Jesus, You Son of the Most High God? I beg You, don’t torment me!” 29 For He had commanded the unclean spirit to come out of the man. Many times it had seized him, and though he was guarded, bound by chains and shackles, he would snap the restraints and be driven by the demon into deserted places.

1. Luke 8:26 Other mss read the Gadarenes
2. Luke 8:28 Lit What to me and to You

I relate to this man - driven by inner torment

uncontrolled by any external constraint

living in deserted places 

among the dead

no connection to living persons

unable to live and function in community with others

this passage is difficult because it raises so many difficult questions

How did this man come to be in this condition?

Was it something of his own choice?

in our modern era we like to be able to explain things in terms of natural causes and assign problems to some level of human control or blame

This passage forces us to acknowledge there are forces beyond our control and understanding that do intersect with our existence

How? Why?  not sure

it is sanity to acknowledge there are tings beyond my limited understanding
not to make them a scapegoat 
but that their are malevolent forces that I cannot deliver myself from

What exactly is the dividing line between human weakness, frailty, failing
and powerful spiritual influences that bring torment?

I don't know

But Jesus came to this man

the man no one could help
no one control
no one reach 
soothe
calm 
reason with 
comfort 
or redirect

He was completely and utterly alone

driven to torment inside and out 

Oh Lord, 
I don't understand all of the whys or the hows of how I came to this place
but i relate to this man
so full of pain and fear and misery
terrified of even you 
who came with love and deliverance

Only you can help us, Jesus

Only you have both the power and the love to reach the unreachable
the tormented

Please help me to not run away and shut you out in my place of terror
It may be frightening and uncomfortable 
but you come to bring me to peace
you come to set me free

from what is all I know
from the familiar entrapments

Help me to let you in 
to let you work

Do your work of deliverance in me

30 “What is your name?” Jesus asked him.

“Legion,” he said—because many demons had entered him. 31 And they begged Him not to banish them to the abyss.

32 A large herd of pigs was there, feeding on the hillside. The demons begged Him to permit them to enter the pigs, and He gave them permission. 33 The demons came out of the man and entered the pigs, and the herd rushed down the steep bank into the lake and drowned. 34 When the men who tended them saw what had happened, they ran off and reported it in the town and in the countryside. 

35 Then people went out to see what had happened. They came to Jesus and found the man the demons had departed from, sitting at Jesus’ feet, dressed and in his right mind. And they were afraid. 36 Meanwhile, the eyewitnesses reported to them how the demon-possessed man was delivered. 37 Then all the people of the Gerasene region[g] asked Him to leave them, because they were gripped by great fear. So getting into the boat, He returned.

Oh Lord, 
we pray for change
for transformation 
for revival

but when you work your wonderful work
we become more terrified than we were before

because you are amazing 
and we cannot explain or control you

it threatens the fragile realities we try to construct 
to shelter us from what we cannot understand

You came in love 
to this whole region

but only one experiences your great deliverance
only one 
was brought 
to peace
covering 
and a right mind

Oh Lord 
help us to not ask you to leave
when we are frightened out of our wits
by the unknown
by you

You are so gracious
you listened to their request
you left 

Please don't leave me, Jesus

I need you 
and there is no other
like you

38 The man from whom the demons had departed kept begging Him to be with Him. But He sent him away and said, 39 “Go back to your home, and tell all that God has done for you.” And off he went, proclaiming throughout the town all that Jesus had done for him.

Oh, Lord, 
thank you
because you died for us
we never have to be sent away from you

we can always be with you
no matter what our situation 
no matter how we feel
no matter what others may be saying and doing
or how they view us

you have made a way for us to abide in you 
as we are honest with you 
in confessing our sins and our need 
and trusting what you alone have done

Thank you, you just want us to share what you have done
we don't have to convince anyone
or change anyone
just tell the truth
of who we are 
of who you are
of what we know you have done

you are reaching out in love to those around us
even to those who have known us well in our deepest torments

Oh Lord, 
I love you
you are so wonderful
thank you for loving me 
and seeking me out even in my torments
for bringing me to 
sitting at your feed, 
clothed
and in my right mind. 
a mind of worship and gratitude 
to you

Amen

2 Timothy 1:7

KJ21

For God hath not given us the spirit of fear, but of power and of love and of a sound mind.

ASV

For God gave us not a spirit of fearfulness; but of power and love and discipline.

AMP

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity or cowardice or fear, but [He has given us a spirit] of power and of love and of sound judgment and personal discipline [abilities that result in a calm, well-balanced mind and self-control].

mindful of Christ - insecurity

For when I feel insecure, alone and uncared for


you care for those no one cares about

you are father to the fatherless
 
 

Psalm 68:5-6International Children’s Bible (ICB)

5 God is in his holy Temple.
    He is a father to orphans.
    He defends the widows.
6 God gives the lonely a home.
    He leads prisoners out with joy.
    But those who turn against God will live in a dry land.

you seek out the lost one

  12 “What do you think?
 If a man has a hundred sheep, 
 and one of them goes astray,
 does he not leave the ninety-nine 
 and go to the mountains 
 to seek the one that is straying? 

13 And if he should find it,
 assuredly, I say to you, 
he rejoices more over that sheep 
than over the ninety-nine that did not go astray.   
Matthew 18:12-13 NKJV


you came to seek and to save that which is lost

10 for the Son of Man has come to seek and to save that which was lost.”

Luke 19:10New King James Version (NKJV)

you lift up the beggar from the trash heap 
and set him with the princes of your people.

    He raises poor people up from the trash pile.
    He lifts needy people out of the ashes.
  He lets them sit with princes.
    He gives them places of honor.  

    I Samuel 2:8 NiRV

shame 

 i feel deeply ashamed
unwanted
un looked for
un sought out
un desired

thank you Lord
you are the God of the un's

you call those things that are not as though they are

said to Abraham  

17 (as it is written, “I have made you a father of many nations”[a])
 in the presence of Him whom he believed—God, who gives life to the dead
 and calls those things which do not exist as though they did;  Romans 4:17 NKJV

You spoke in nothingness and then there was
You called everything we see and touch and know our of nothingness

You are God of all the lack

“My grace is enough for you:
 for where there is weakness,
 my power is shown the more completely.”
2 Corinthians 12:9

you are glorified in our weakness
you are magnified in our need

help me to hear that again and again

my need is your opportunity
to shine forth

so you can be seen
not me

deep in your wounds my shame to hide
by his wounds we are healed
a safe place to be vulnerable
in your light
in your love

you are light
in whom there is no darkness at all

you are the light that shines in the darkness
and the darkness has not overcome it

  At the beginning God expressed himself. That personal expression, that word, was with God, and was God, and he existed with God from the beginning. All creation took place through him, and none took place without him. In him appeared life and this life was the light of mankind. The light still shines in the darkness and the darkness has never put it out.  John 1:1-5 Phillips


what better place to rest unseen than in the midst of bright shining light
bursting forth in all directions
a refuge for my self conscious weary soul

you are the outshining of who the Father is
the glory and beauty

no one needs to see me only you
You see me and that is enough

That was the true light which shines upon every man as he comes into the world. He came into the world—the world he had created—and the world failed to recognise him. He came into his own creation, and his own people would not accept him. Yet wherever men did accept him he gave them the power to become sons of God. These were the men who truly believed in him, and their birth depended not on the course of nature nor on any impulse or plan of man, but on God.

14-18 So the word of God became a human being and lived among us. We saw his splendor (the splendor as of a father’s only son), full of grace and truth.       John 1:9-14 Phillips

vulnerable

this is what it costs
being vulnerable

pride

let it drain out
it only leaves me high and dry
isolated and alone
oblivious to the reality of who I really am
and the depth of my need

face the truth

i need
i need you
i need others who have you

casting all your care
on Him
because
HE CARES FOR YOU

You Care
YOU CARE FOR ME

You are what I need
You are greater than even my greatest and deepest shame
lack  failure weakness and need

there is no pit so deep that you are not deeper still



"... that we should be holy and with out blame, before him in love" Ephesians 1:4

 holy
you desire us to be like you
to be full of you Holy Spirit
through and through
so that you seep and shine out in every way
in every interaction
more and more of you

"... that we should be holy and with out blame, before him in love" Ephesians 1:4

without blame
Only you can make us without blame
we are at fault in so much
but you never fail
always perfectly righteous
and perfectly good

"... that we should be holy and with out blame, before him in love" Ephesians 1:4

before him in love
you want us not far away
but before you
before you
in love

You look on us with great affection
tenderness
yearnings of kindness

facing one another
in full view and close

Praise you Lord
only Jesus can do this
but you want to
you long for this

"... that we should be holy and with out blame, before him in love" Ephesians 1:4


My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.
2 Corinthians 12:9 

 I was given the gift of a handicap to keep me in constant touch with my limitations. Satan’s angel did his best to get me down; what he in fact did was push me to my knees. No danger then of walking around high and mighty! At first I didn’t think of it as a gift, and begged God to remove it. Three times I did that, and then he told me,

My grace is enough; it’s all you need.
My strength comes into its own in your weakness.

Once I heard that, I was glad to let it happen. I quit focusing on the handicap and began appreciating the gift. It was a case of Christ’s strength moving in on my weakness. Now I take limitations in stride, and with good cheer, these limitations that cut me down to size—abuse, accidents, opposition, bad breaks. I just let Christ take over! And so the weaker I get, the stronger I become.

2 Corinthians 12: 7-10 The Message

Do You See This Woman?

36 One of the Pharisees asked Jesus to eat with him. Jesus went into the Pharisee’s house and sat at the table. 37 A sinful woman in the town learned that Jesus was eating at the Pharisee’s house. So she brought an alabaster jar of perfume. 38 She stood at Jesus’ feet, crying, and began to wash his feet with her tears. She dried his feet with her hair, kissed them many times and rubbed them with the perfume. 39 The Pharisee who asked Jesus to come to his house saw this. He thought to himself, “If Jesus were a prophet, he would know that the woman who is touching him is a sinner!”

40 Jesus said to the Pharisee, “Simon, I have something to say to you.”

Simon said, “Teacher, tell me.”

41 Jesus said, “There were two men. Both men owed money to the same banker. One man owed the banker 500 silver coins.[a] The other man owed the banker 50 silver coins. 42 The men had no money; so they could not pay what they owed. But the banker told the men that they did not have to pay him. Which one of the two men will love the banker more?”

43 Simon, the Pharisee, answered, “I think it would be the one who owed him the most money.”

Jesus said to Simon, “You are right.” 44 Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon, “Do you see this woman? When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet. But she washed my feet with her tears and dried my feet with her hair. 45 You did not kiss me, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in! 46 You did not rub my head with oil, but she rubbed my feet with perfume. 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven. This is clear because she showed great love. But the person who has only a little to be forgiven will feel only a little love.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The people sitting at the table began to think to themselves, “Who is this man? How can he forgive sins?”

50 Jesus said to the woman, “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace.”   Luke 7:36-50 

Footnotes:

1. 7:41 silver coins A Roman denarius. One coin was the average pay for one day’s work.

International Children’s Bible (ICB)

The Holy Bible, International Children’s Bible® Copyright© 1986, 1988, 1999, 2015 by Tommy Nelson™, a division of Thomas Nelson. 

Do You See This Woman?

Simon saw only a sinful woman

repulsive, undesired, rejected

But Jesus truly sees us as who we really are

both the need, the failure, the shame 

and who He means for us to be by his grace

What He Saw

O Praise you

What Jesus saw was a lost child coming home

What He saw was love and worship

gratitude and faith

What He saw was a gift that ministered to Him

The Gifts

"... you gave me no water for my feet. But she washed my feet with her tears and dried my feet with her hair.

 45 You did not kiss me, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in! 

46 You did not rub my head with oil, but she rubbed my feet with perfume."

Even her tears,  even her tears

were a blessing to him

her love was a refreshment to Him

her gratitude a beautiful fragrance to anoint him

What Do You See?

How do I see myself, others?

So many ways to see    

        or not see as the case may be....

SEE HIM  and how he sees

then I will see aright

" Then Jesus turned toward the woman and said to Simon,

 “Do you see this woman? 

When I came into your house, you gave me no water for my feet. But she washed my feet with her tears and dried my feet with her hair. 

45 You did not kiss me, but she has been kissing my feet since I came in! 

46 You did not rub my head with oil, but she rubbed my feet with perfume.

 47 I tell you that her many sins are forgiven. This is clear because she showed great love. But the person who has only a little to be forgiven will feel only a little love.”

48 Then Jesus said to her, “Your sins are forgiven.”

49 The people sitting at the table began to think to themselves, “Who is this man? How can he forgive sins?”

50 Jesus said to the woman, “Because you believed, you are saved from your sins. Go in peace."   

Your banner over me is love

NET

He brought me into the banquet hall, and he looked at me lovingly.

NIRV

Lead me to the dinner hall. Let your banner of love be lifted high above me.

NIV

Let him lead me to the banquet hall, and let his banner over me be love.

NOG

He leads me into a banquet room and looks at me with love.

NABRE

He brought me to the banquet hall and his glance at me signaled love.

NASB

“He has brought me to his banquet hall, And his banner over me is love.

TLB

He brings me to the banquet hall, and everyone can see how much he loves me.     Song of Songs 2:4

What if I were to  really believe this???




how would it be if I really lived in this reality?

your banner over me

is love





She is loved

not because
she is worthy

not because
 she deserves it

not because
 she has achieved

not because
 she has _________

not because
 she is anything
   in herself

But because I AM LOVE

and my love is enough for all

my love is for all

for any and for all
 willing to receive it

Jesus makes this relationship of love possible

He is worthy
He has done
He is
He laid down his perfect life
to take my fallen and broken one

to take away my failings and shortcomings
and all that I sense is just not enough




because it is not dependent on me

I cannot break it or undo it


As I just believe Him and  receive this love
it lifts up a banner that shows for all to see

She is complete in me

She is mine

I love her

I will be with her always

I will never leave her not forsake her

She is my beloved

I know her faults, weaknesses, even outright sins
better than you ever will

And yet because of my perfect Son

I can draw her close to me

in tenderness and affection

I have made a way for her to be near to me forever

never to have to leave or go away

I am her Father

I am her Refuge

I am her Sanctuary

I am her Safe Haven

I am her Protector

I am her Teacher and Guide

I am her Wonderful Counselor

I am her Peace

and through her
I wish to bring all others around her
 to know how much I love them as well

How I am their deepest longing and hope

I am their deepest comfort and joy

I AM


Is this what the banner over me for all to see and read says most days.......???



The reason I don't live in this reality is that it conflicts
 it conflicts with what I feel inside
 it conflicts with what I am experiencing
 it definitely conflicts
with what I feel others think and see about me


 most days the banner over my head says

"frustrated, overwhelmed, worried, exhausted, afraid, sad

even 
 angry, bitter, feeling shameful and unloved

and sometimes even
 feeling undesired, rejected, isolated and despairing


but this conflict between what I feel and experience
 is really a forced crossroads of the heart

what will I choose to believe?
your love or what I feel
your truth or what I think is true
you over what I want others to be to me


the identity I have in Christ
or what others view me as
even what I view myself as

The Way Up is the Way OUT

an audience of one
only one's smile that I need

ONLY YOU

to hear you say, "Well done good and faithful servant.  Enter into the joy of your Lord"

AMP

His master said to him, ‘Well done, good and faithful servant. You have been faithful and trustworthy over a little, I will put you in charge of many things; share in the joy of your master.’

the work of God is for you to believe

John 6:29J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

29 “The work of God for you,” replied Jesus, “is to believe in the one whom he has sent to you.”

this is the message to all of us:

you are beloved
not because of you at all
but because of HIM

He makes it possible

therefore it is possible for all

for all willing to trust and believe
not that they are great in and of themselves
but that you are love

Romans 3:23-26J.B. Phillips New Testament (PHILLIPS)

God’s new plan—righteousness by faith, not through the Law

21-26 But now we are seeing the righteousness of God declared quite apart from the Law (though amply testified to by both Law and Prophets)—it is a righteousness imparted to, and operating in, all who have faith in Jesus Christ. (For there is no distinction to be made anywhere: everyone has sinned, everyone falls short of the beauty of God’s plan.) Under this divine system a man who has faith is now freely acquitted in the eyes of God by his generous dealing in the redemptive act of Jesus Christ.

Romans 3:23-24Holman Christian Standard Bible (HCSB)

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the[a] glory of God. 24 They are justified freely by His grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

Romans 3:23-24The Message (MSG)

God Has Set Things Right

21-24 But in our time something new has been added. What Moses and the prophets witnessed to all those years has happened. The God-setting-things-right that we read about has become Jesus-setting-things-right for us. And not only for us, but for everyone who believes in him. For there is no difference between us and them in this. Since we’ve compiled this long and sorry record as sinners (both us and them) and proved that we are utterly incapable of living the glorious lives God wills for us, God did it for us. Out of sheer generosity he put us in right standing with himself. A pure gift. He got us out of the mess we’re in and restored us to where he always wanted us to be. And he did it by means of Jesus Christ.

all fall short

all can be recovered by Jesus

to knowing YOU and being loved by YOU

there is enough  for all

no one is better than any one else before God

no exclusiveness
no zero sum game

You are what we all need

Praise you Lord

You are beautiful and awesome

[ The Solution Is Life on God’s Terms ] With the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved. Those who enter into Christ’s being-here-for-us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud. A new power is in operation. The Spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

Romans 8:1-2 MSG

7-10 Because of the sacrifice of the Messiah, his blood poured out on the altar of the Cross, we’re a free people—free of penalties and punishments chalked up by all our misdeeds. And not just barely free, either. Abundantly free! He thought of everything, provided for everything we could possibly need, letting us in on the plans he took such delight in making. He set it all out before us in Christ, a long-range plan in which everything would be brought together and summed up in him, everything in deepest heaven, everything on planet earth.

Ephesians 1:7-10 The Message

VOICE

He placed me at his banquet table, for everyone to see that his banner over me declares his love.

TLB

He brings me to the banquet hall, and everyone can see how much he loves me.

Song of Songs 2:4